ICS201 Lecture 20 : Searching King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals College of Computer Science & Engineering Information & Computer Science Department

The Problem Searching is an every day occurrence. Searching a particular item among a collection of many items

Searching an array of integers If an array is not sorted, there is no better algorithm than linear search for finding an element in it static final int NONE = -1; // not a legal index static int linearSearch(int target, int[] a) { for (int p = 0; p < a.length; p++) { if (target == a[p]) return p; } return NONE; }

Searching an array of Strings Searching an array of Strings is just like searching an array of integers, except Instead of i1==i2 we need to use s1.equals(s2) static final int NONE = -1; // not a legal index static int linearSearch(String target, String[] a) { for (int p = 0; p < a.length; p++) { if (target.equals(a[p])) return p; } return NONE; }

Searching an array of Objects Searching an array of Objects is just like searching an array of Strings, provided The operation equals has been defined appropriately static final int NONE = -1; // not a legal index static int linearSearch(Object target, Object[] a) { for (int p = 0; p < a.length; p++) { if (target.equals(a[p])) return p; } return NONE; }

Java review: equals The Object class defines public boolean equals(Object obj) For most objects, this just tests identity: whether the two objects are really one and the same This is not generally what you want The String class overrides this method with a method that is more appropriate for Strings You can override equals for your own classes But there are some rules you should follow if you do

Overriding equals If you override equals, your method should have the following properties (for your objects x, y, z ) Reflexive: for any x, x.equals(x) should return true Symmetric: for any non-null objects x and y, x.equals(y) should return the same result as y.equals(x) Transitive: if x.equals(y) and y.equals(z) are true, then x.equals(z) should also be true Consistent: x.equals(y) should always return the same answer (unless you modify x or y, of course) For any non-null x, x.equals(null) should return false Java cannot check to make sure you follow these rules

About sorted arrays An array is sorted in ascending order if each element is not smaller than the preceding element An array is sorted in descending order if each element is no larger than the preceding element When we just say an array is “ sorted, ” by default we mean that it is sorted in ascending order An array of Object cannot be in sorted order ! There is no notion of “ smaller ” or “ larger ” for arbitrary objects We can define an ordering for some of our objects

The Comparable interface java.lang provides a Comparable interface with the following method: public int compareTo(Object that) This method should return A negative integer if this is less than that Zero if this equals that A positive integer if this is greater than that Reminder: you implement an interface like this: class MyObject implements Comparable { public int compareTo(Object that) {...} }

Consistency with equals compareTo is consistent with equals if: x.compareTo(y)==0 gives the same boolean result as x.equals(y ) Therefore: if you implement Comparable, you really should override equals as well Java doesn ’ t actually require consistency with equals, but sooner or later you ’ ll get into trouble if you don ’ t meet this condition

Binary Search Ignoring one-half of the data when the data is sorted.

Binary search Linear search has linear time complexity: Time n if the item is not found Time n/2, on average, if the item is found If the array is sorted, we can write a faster search How do we look up a name in a phone book, or a word in a dictionary? Look somewhere in the middle Compare what ’ s there with the thing you ’ re looking for Decide which half of the remaining entries to look at Repeat until you find the correct place This is the binary search algorithm

Binary search algorithm To find which (if any) component of a[left..right] is equal to target (where a is sorted): Set l = left, and set r = right While l <= r, repeat: Let m be an integer about midway between l and r If target is equal to a[m], terminate with answer m If target is less than a[m], set r = m–1 If target is greater than a[m], set l = m+1 Terminate with answer none lrmm-1m+1 ?

Binary search in Java static int binarySearch(Comparable target, Comparable[] a, int left, int right) { int l = left, r = right; while (l <= r) { int m = (l + r) / 2; int comp = target.compareTo(a[m]); if (comp == 0) return m; else if (comp < 0) r = m – 1; else /* comp > 0 */ l = m + 1; } return NONE; // As before, NONE = -1 }

Recursive binary search in Java static int binarySearch(Comparable target, Comparable[] a, int left, int right) { if (left > right) return NONE; int m = (left + right) / 2; int comp = target.compareTo(a[m]); if (comp == 0) return m; else if (comp < 0) return binarySearch(target, a, left, m-1); else // comp > 0 return binarySearch(target, a, m+1, right); }

Java Class Package: The Method binarySearch The class Arrays in java.util defines versions of a static method with following specification: /** Task: Searches an entire array for a given item. array the array to be searched desiredItem the item to be found in the array index of the array element that equals desiredItem; * otherwise returns -belongsAt-1, where belongsAt is * the index of the array element that should contain * desiredItem */ public static int binarySearch(type[] array, type desiredItem);

The Method binarySearch

Binary search takes log n time In binary search, we choose an index that cuts the remaining portion of the array in half We repeat this until we either find the value we are looking for, or we reach a subarray of size 1 If we start with an array of size n, we can cut it in half log 2 n times Hence, binary search has logarithmic (log n) time complexity For an array of size 1000, this is 100 times faster than linear search ( 2 10 ~= 1000 )

Conclusion Linear search has linear time complexity Binary search has logarithmic time complexity For large arrays, binary search is far more efficient than linear search However, binary search requires that the array be sorted If the array is sorted, binary search is 100 times faster for an array of size times faster for an array of size This is the kind of speedup that we care about when we analyze algorithms

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